Friday, 28 April 2006

Malaysia is on her way to produce the first astronaut. Below is one joke I found related to Malaysian first astronaut. Please take it as a joke, and I meant no offence. I totally support the government project to send Malaysian to the space. Although it will use Russian expertise, technology and everything Russian, but I see this as the first step for Malaysia to develop expertise in space science.

The project started in October 2003 when Malaysian government had offered any Malaysian to apply to be the first Malaysian astronaut. About 11,000 of applications received, but today only four candidates have being shortlisted. And one of them is a woman, engineer S. Vanajah. The other three are Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, dentist Dr. Faiz Khaleed and pilot Mohammed Faiz Kamaluddin. They will undergo training in Star City in Moscow, Russia. Among the four candidates, only two will be selected as the finalist but only one could be send to the space.

Malaysia’s astronaut programme was part of a package deal arising from Malaysia’s purchase of RM34 billion 18 SukhoiSU-30MKN fighter jets from Russia. Russian Government had offered in return a place for a Malaysian to join Russian cosmonauts on the expedition to the International Space Station in October next year.

Three potential astronauts were called for an interview - one Indian, one Malay and one Chinese. Interviewer: "So, Muthu, this is a dangerous mission...How much do you think you should be paid for it?" Muthu thinks to himself and says, "One million ringgit." "Why so much?" asks Interviewer. "Nowadays toddy very expensive" replies Muthu. "I see," says Interviewer. "Thank you...please ask the Malay guy to come here" So the Malay walks up, and is asked the same question. "Uh...2 million boleh lah," replies the Malay applicant. "Two million? That's a lot of money! Even the aneh (brother in tamil) before you only asked for one million!" "You see," explains Mat. "I have 4 wives and 15 children... so 20 of us in the family, we need a lot of money to support ourselves...." "I see," says Interviewer. "Okay, can you ask the Chinese guy to come here now?" The Chinese guy comes in and Interviewer asks, "Ah Chong, this is a dangerous mission, how much do you think you should be paid?" Ah Chong thinks for a while, and suddenly says, "3 million." Interviewer is shocked. What?!?!" 3 million? Why so much?!" Ah Chong beckons Interviewer to come closer, and whispers... "One million you keep, one million I keep, and then one more million to send muthu into space!

Wednesday, 26 April 2006

Beware, Microsoft is going to disturb your monitor screen if you are using the pirate copy of Windows!

Where are you going to put your face, if while you are working with a customer on a desktop computer, suddenly there is a pop-up message says “This copy of Windows is not genuine ...”.

Not only that, more others random messages will be shown on the screen, and it is permenant as long as you are using the illegal copy. It is like your Windows is being infected by virus.. he he he..but now the virus came from Microsoft. The 'virus' will find it's victims from TOMORROW in the United States, Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia.

Actually, this is a move by Microsoft to minimize illegal copy of their software. 61% of software used in local private businesses is illegal, reported anti-piracy watchdog Business Software Alliance BSA.

In my opinion, if you are using the illegal copy of Ms Windows and do not want the 'virus' to spread into your desktop PC, just do not update it. If you have already done so, then it is time to reformat your hard disk..(and buy the original product.)

PETALING JAYA: Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of local PC users running pirated Windows operating systems will soon face the shame of being reminded of their illegal action every time they switch on their machines.

The feature will be added to the operating system by Microsoft Corp from tomorrow and cannot be erased. It will nag the guilty users and can be awkward if it shows up on corporate PCs.

There are about six million Windows PC users in the country, according to industry estimates, while anti-piracy watchdog Business Software Alliance has reported that 61% of all software used in local private businesses is illegal.

Current users of PCs running pirated Windows will find their machines “tattooed” the next time they update the operating system.

Basically, a message stating “This copy of Windows is not genuine ...” will be permanently affixed to the operating system’s login screen, and a similar message will randomly pop up on the desktop whenever the machine is in use.

The anti-piracy move is being kicked off in five countries tomorrow – the United States, Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia.

Users whose machines have been affected will only be able to get rid of the tattoo if they install a genuine copy of Windows. Prices range from RM320 for a copy of Windows XP Home (OEM version) to RM510 for Windows XP Pro (OEM version).

“Or they can put up with being ‘nagged’ by the pop-up message every time they use their computers,” said K.T. Ng, group manager for Windows Client solutions at Microsoft Malaysia.

If they were businessmen or corporate executives, it would be embarrassing if their clients saw the tattoo indicating that a pirated copy of Windows was being used, he said.

PIRATED software users be warned. Microsoft Corp is going to start “nagging” Windows users who do not have a legitimate copy of its operating system (OS).

Starting tomorrow, the software giant will permanently flag personal computers that are not running a genuine copy of Windows.

This move affects the six million Windows users in this country, as well as those in the United States, Britain, New Zealand and Australia.

Industry sources informed In.Tech that the software giant is giving Windows the ability to tell if a user's PC is running a genuine or pirated version of the OS, via an update patch that becomes available from tomorrow.

The patch takes effect if a PC user has opted to automatically update Windows the moment he goes online. It will also take effect should a PC user manually download the latest Windows updates.

If the OS is an unauthorised copy, a pop-up dialogue box will appear on the Windows login screen, informing the user that his copy of the OS is counterfeit and that he should get a genuine copy.

Friday, 21 April 2006

I have used many bittorrent clients. The first one was ABC (Yet Another Bittorrent Client). It is very simple, but still I got the file I wanted. I only need to configure the port. Then download. I am using 1MB kbps bandwidth TM Net Streamyx line. The maximum download rate should be 128kBps, but it is impossible to get that rate. The maximum rate I got is 125kBps. Well, it is very good. I only got the rate when I set the upload rate to 32kBps. But the downside of ABC, it will make your PC to crawl after a few hours using it. It is strange. At first, when I started the client, it will run smoothly. But after a few hours, I will hardly open or run any application. So, I only run it at night when I sleep. Although the problem, I use it for couples of months!

Then I try to search other clients. I tried Azureus. It is a java bittorent client. You can use it in Windows or Linux. I have one partition installed with Red Hat Linux in my system. So, I found it quite useful for me. The interface is very good and quite user friendly. It is very different from ABC. There are so many functions and options. Unfortunately, it is very hungry resource. I only use Pentium III 866MHz with 256 MB RAM. I do not think this client suite for my system. And another minus, I could not get the maximum download rate which I got when I use ABC. The fastest I got was 60kBps, no matter how I configured it. So, I dropped this Azureus.

I also have tried BitTornado. I only tried it a few times. And I did not like the interface and the function is not within my taste range. Another client I tried was BitComet, which is claimed to be the most powerful client. The interface is very good. Have many functions and options. It is not so resource hungry. My system run fine with it. But.. yes ..But.. the maximum download rate I got is 60-70kBps. I have tried changed it's setting. Many configuration guided by it's forum. But it does not want to get higher. It also has unstable download rate. Sometimes high and sometime crawling.

Then I tried utorrent. After I download it and want to install it, I was a little surprised because it does not need any installation. Just download and run. It is very light. Double clicked and it pop out just like that. Like you click on start menu of your Windows. With utorrent running, I have no difficulty to run other application, and the speed is almost stable. It's interface is not bad at all. Now, the latest version is 1.5, which the interface is the best from any other client I have tried before. My favourite window is the speed graph. I can see how stable is the speed when downloading. Another good thing is I got 100kBps stable download rate at most downloads. I got that speed when using this setting:

My Optimal Utorrent Configuration

Enable Upnp port mapping (checked)

Add utorrent to Windows Firewall exceptions (checked)

Global maximum upload rate (30) kB/s

Alternate upload (35) kB/s

Global maximum number of connections: 150

Maximum number of connected peers per torrent: 50

Number of upload slots per torrent: 4

Use additional upload slots if upload speed <90%: (checked)

Maximum number of active torrent: 3

Maximum number of active downloads: 2

Enable DHT network (unchecked)

Enable DHT for new torrent (unchecked)

Enable Peer Exchange (checked)

Enable scrapping (checked)

Pre-allocate all files (unchecked)

Seed ration: 150%

That's all. Other than that, I just leave it as default. My internet speed is 1MB kbps download and 384 kbps upload, and I my system is Pentium III 866MHz with 256MB RAM.

My Torrents Site ListI have some favourites site which I always hanging around or download torrents from.

But now I have a DVD player with DIVX ability, I want to convert the videos to AVI. Unfortunately, I have tried many ways but the AVIs' quality I got was not acceptable. So I drop that idea, perhaps until I got the right and the best way to convert MOV to AVI.

Instead, I found a way to convert MOV to MPG with excellent quality and 35% of original MOV file. The quality is very far better than the first method.

Now I use TMPGenc 3.0 Xpress.

This is the configuration of TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress to get that excellent MPG quality. Click to view the actual image.

To get that setting:1. At set Output window, I select "Standard Template" - "MPEG Output"This is a general MPEG standard which do not follow VCD or DVD standards. Some DVD or VCD may not be able to play this format. Off course, my Samsung HD850 can play it!

Last night I tried DivX Pro 6 Converter. Previously, I had convert a concert WMV file to MPG and Lumix FX9 MOV to MPG using TMPGenc XPress, and the quality is excellent. Then last night, I tried to use DivX Pro 6 to convert this file to smaller size but not loose any quality.

The converter is so simple. You only need to drag and drop any file you want to convert and click convert button. There is not much setting can be changed. In the converter itself, there is no configuration button. If you want to change the configuration, you have to change from the codec configuration utility. Hence, there is not much to change though. I just leave it as default. There is more setting options in DivX Pro Converter 6.1.

From my experiments, I found that when I convert an MPG of a concert which I had converted from WMV, the quality is excellent but in a smaller size. Original MPG is 13MB, convert to DIVX using DivXPro 6 Converter, the size decrease to about 9MB. I also convert the original WMV to DIVX, and the quality is also excellent.

Another experiment, I converted an MPG file which was from MOV and I found that the quality is worse where viewable block everywhere in the video. And another bad things, the converter cannot open MOV file. So could not convert MOV directly to DIVX.

My conclusion, I will use the DivXPro 6 Converter to convert my WMV files and stick to use TMPGEnc to convert my MOV file to MPG.

Wednesday, 19 April 2006

In one of my post here, I repaired one of my desktop PC but ruined another one. So today, I tried to replace the motherboard.

On that day, when the computer could not boot up, I thought it was because it have a not-so-good motherboard. This desktop PC although have Pentium III 933, 128MB RAM and 64MB AGP display card, the performance is bad. In fact, it is slower then my Pentium II 350 with 192MB RAM. How could it be? It happened after I changed the motherboard last year, after it was striked by lightning.

So, when it could not boot up, I thought it was because of the motherboard. I quickly bought a second hand motherboard from buysell.com.my. Got one good specification motherboard with 370 pin socket, so I just bid it until I won.

Today, I received the motherboard, but in a not-so-good packing. He only put the motherboard into a thin old plastic bag and put it in a box full of newspaper. I quickly assembles it into the ruined desktop PC.

7. Click 'User' under the category (because only under this category you could insert a custome category).

8. Click 'Add' button.

9. Create a rule name, example torrent. Select TCP, Port Start 6889, Port End 6889, Port Map 6889, click 'Apply'. The port number is just an example. You have to put the same port number which you are using in the torrent client. Use only one port is enough for Utorrent or Azureous.

10. Now you have create a rule named torrent. Select it from the available rule, click add button, and apply.

Monday, 17 April 2006

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia Airlines Flight Attendants Association (MAFAA) wants a written apology from Afdlin Shauki, one of the executive producers of the comedy, Buli Balik.

The association members feel the reference to stewardesses in the movie as toilet cleaners is demeaning.

“Afdlin must make a written apology to us. Many stewardesses have expressed their unhappiness after reading the story in The Malay Mail yesterday,” said MAFAA secretary-general, Ismail Nasaruddin A.W. Maxwell, in reaction to Afdlin’s comments that no malice was intended towards stewardesses in Buli Balik.

Are the cabin crew association so insecure about their own profession that they have to justify that they are at par with airline pilots? in my mind they have a great profession. They get to travel, meet many people and at the same time. I too had contemplated once in my life about becoming a steward but alas my calling in the arts was stronger and they had no steward baju that could fit my bulbous size.

So, I am wondering now... why is there such a Hoo ha about that Syarifah Shahira scene on BULI BALIK.

I got 3 computers, which 2 of them are o.k. and 1 is k.o... The first one is what I am using right now. Another one, a very old Pentium II 350 with 192MB RAM and 8MB AGP, cannot start, which I have no time to look at it for weeks. The last one is quite okay, Pentium III 933MHz with 128MB RAM and 64MB AGP card, but sometimes it will hang if I use MS Office. No problem if I use it for surfing, playing games and converting media files for hours.

Today, I got some free time so I try to look at the second computer. After some testing, I found out that one piece of 64MB RAM was faulty. So I took it out. And the computer can be started and run fine. I asked my son to play The Need For Speed SE, and no problem at all with 128MB RAM left.

Got more time, so I thought what if I test the faulty RAM in the third computer. To confirm whether it is really faulty. Then I open the third computer's case and put the RAM into it. The computer could not be booted up. Okay, so it is confirmed that the RAM was faulty. So, I took the RAM out, and push the start button. But, unfortunately the computer did want to start. What happened? I thought I did not do anything stupid. Oh no, I already did. The stupid thing I did is to test the bad RAM in the good computer. I tried everything, but failed to fix it. There is somebody say that "if it is not broken do not fix it". Hmm..

Saturday, 15 April 2006

So much calendar to choose. Yahoo calendar, Microsoft Outlook calendar, PDA's calendar, mobile phone calendar, and the latest is Google calendar. What is the hoo haa about Google calendar? Yeah, it is a web base calendar and free!. Off course, same as Yahoo calendar. I don't know what is the advantage of using the calendar. I even don't know how to use it and I never use any of them before. May be because I am not a complicated person or may be I am not living in a complicated life. Hmm...

Thursday, 13 April 2006

My last post about contact lens infection by contact lens solution is here and here where I thought I was infected by keratitis. Throwed my almost full bottle of Baush & Lomb's Renu and went to the near eye shop to buy a new one. I bought AMO Complete Moisture Plus produced by Advanced Medical Optics (AMO) Ireland but manufactured by AMO China (Made in China??!, hmm.. hope it will be fine.)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have learned of RARE but SERIOUSeye infection in people who wear soft contact lenses. The infection is fungal keratitis, caused by the Fusarium fungus. It can cause a permanent loss of vision. Several patients with this infection have needed corneal transplants to save their vision.

According to the American Optometric Association, there are over 30 million contact lens wearers in the United States and fewer than 30 cases of fungal keratitis have been reported in the US during this recent outbreak. Still, patients with signs or symptoms of microbial keratitis should be scheduled immediately. Indications that a patient may have microbial keratitis include:

-Red and irritated eyes lasting for an unusually long period of time after lens removal-Pain in and around the eyes especially if it progressively worsens-Increased sensitivity to light-Rapid onset of blurred or fuzzy vision-Excessive tearing or discharge

From Baush & Lomb Renu's FAQ about Fusarium infection: Fusarium is a fungus commonly found throughout our everyday environment, including on our skin. It especially thrives in tropical climates. Fusarium typically enters the eye through some sort of trauma or injury to the cornea, resulting in an inflammatory reaction. The situation is generally aggressively treated with combinations of anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory medications. The earlier the treatment is commenced, the better the results will be.

Mycotic keratitis refers to the corneal infection caused by either filamentous fungi (moulds) or yeast. There are important epidemiological and clinical differences between these two forms. The most important risk factors related to fungal keratitis include trauma (generally with plant material), chronic ocular surface diseases, contact lens usage, surgery, corneal anesthetic abuse, and immunodeficiencies. Interestingly, fungal keratitis is a condition related to warm climates. In the southernmost states of the United States, fungal keratitis explains up to 35% of microbial keratitis cases compared with 1% in New York or Minnesota.

Prognosis and therapy

Fungal keratitis is a serious condition that requires prolonged treatment and close follow-up. Natamycin (Pimaricin) appears to be the drug of choice and amphotericin B a second alternative. Chlorhexidine has emerged as a potential inexpensive option but current data are limited. Systemic therapy with azoles, particularly fluconazole should be considered when yeasts are involved. Surgery may be necessary, depending upon the degree of damage to the eye. Interventions range from simple scraping of ulcerative lesions to superficial or lamellar keratectomy. Animal models suggest that excimer laser may have a role in the future. Anecdotal experience with liposomal preparations of amphotericin B have suggested their potential role in refractory cases.

Wednesday, 12 April 2006

Finally, the planned bridge to link Malaysia and Singapore is scrapped.

The Malaysian government decides to discontinued the plan to build the bridge to replace the Johor Causeway which linking Malaysia and Singapore. The government decision was made after considering the public views and sentiments particularly about the Singapore's demand supply of sand and the use of airspace by the Singapore Air Force. The government also decides to stop all the negotiation related to the bridge.

Years ago (in Mahathir Mohammad era), the Malaysian government decided to build a crooked bridge aka "scenic" bridge (picture above) in the Malaysia side because of Singapore demands of sand supply from Malaysia and the use of Malaysia airspace if Malaysia wants to build a full bridge. A few months ago, Malaysia begin the construction work and Singapore was surprised and disappointed with Malaysia's decision despites all the negotiations are still on.

And now, no bridge, no half-bridge, no sand and no airspace. Only the old causeway left. Malaysia wants the bridge cause it will bring so much benefit for Tanjung Pelepas Port and Pasir Gudang Port when ships will be able to sail through the Johor Straits. Unfortunately, Singapore will loose big time in their port business.

1996: Then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad first raises the proposal for a bridge to replace the Causeway.

1999: Singapore says the bridge proposal must have the agreement of both sides. Both countries agree to thrash out outstanding bilateral issues as part of a package. The bridge proposal is one of them.

2002: Malaysia unilaterally decides to jettison the package approach. Singapore's response is that all issues, including the bridge, will be negotiated individually and decided on their own merits.

2003: Singapore says that in order for it to agree to Malaysia's bridge proposal, there must be a balance of benefits. Malaysia then comes up with a new proposal of a half-bridge.

2004: Singapore maintains that any bridge Malaysia has in mind has to comply with the International Tribunal for Law of the Sea (Itlos) ruling that both sides must cooperate in the management of the common marine environment in the Johor Strait. So Malaysia needs to consult Singapore on any plans to build a half-bridge.

2005: Foreign Minister George Yeo reiterates stand that Malaysia has to consult Singapore, and there would be serious implications if Malaysia were to demolish its half of the Causeway.

Jan 26, 2006: Malaysia decides to go ahead with the replacement of its half of the Causeway without demolishing the bridge, but says negotiations with Singapore to build a full bridge would continue.

April 4, 2006: Singapore maintains its position that constructing a full straight bridge to replace the Causeway would incur 'huge financial costs and no significant benefits' for the country, but will consider Malaysia's proposal for a full bridge if there is a 'balance of benefits'.

April 12, 2006: Malaysia announces it will abandon the bridge project.

Rochester, NY --- Bausch & Lomb (NYSE:BOL) earlier today announced that it is temporarily suspending U.S. shipments of ReNu® with MoistureLoc® lens care solutions produced in its Greenville, S.C., manufacturing facility. In an effort to provide investors with assistance in understanding the magnitude of revenues derived from the ReNu with MoistureLoc solutions, the company indicated that the product generated sales of approximately $45 million in the United States in 2005.

Yes, it is about our eyes. These are the guidelines from the American Optometric Association regarding contact lense:

Carefully and regularly clean contact lenses, as directed by an optometrist and the patient information included with lens care products.

Rub the contact lenses with fingers and rinse thoroughly before soaking the lenses overnight in enough multi-purpose solution to completely cover the lens.

Store lenses in the proper case and replace the lens storage case every three months. Clean the contact lens case after each use and keep the case open and dry between cleanings.

Use the proper products to clean and disinfect contact lenses as recommended by your optometrist. Remember that saline solutions and rewetting drops are not designed to disinfect lenses.

Only fresh solution should be used to clean and disinfect contact lenses. Never re-use old solution. Contact lens solution must be changed every day, even if the lenses are not used daily.

SEPANG, April 8 -- SAVVY R3... Proton today unveiled The New Savvy ZeroKit in conjuction with the High Performance Challenge Track Day held at the Sepang International Circuit.The new variant of Proton's latest model, which developed by Race Rally Research (R3)-the Motorsports Division of Proton, enhances the original's sporty exterior with a much more performance oriented outlook.Available in Magma Red, Midnight Black, Stratos Blue, Apple Green and Sterling Grey, the new looks Savvy is priced between RM43,000 to RM46,000 depending on manual or automated manual transmissions and metallic or solid colours.

Last night I tried DivX Pro 6 Converter. Previously, I had convert a concert WMV file to MPG and Lumix FX9 MOV to MPG using TMPGenc XPress, and the quality is excellent. Then last night, I tried to use DivX Pro 6 to convert this file to smaller size but not loose any quality.

The converter is so simple. You only need to drag and drop any file you want to convert and click convert button. There is not much setting can be changed. In the converter itself, there is no configuration button. If you want to change the configuration, you have to change from the codec configuration utility. Hence, there is not much to change though. I just leave it as default. There is more setting options in DivX Pro Converter 6.1.

From my experiments, I found that when I convert an MPG of a concert which I had converted from WMV, the quality is excellent but in a smaller size. Original MPG is 13MB, convert to DIVX using DivXPro 6 Converter, the size decrease to about 9MB. I also convert the original WMV to DIVX, and the quality is also excellent.

Another experiment, I converted an MPG file which was from MOV and I found that the quality is worse where viewable block everywhere in the video. And another bad things, the converter cannot open MOV file. So could not convert MOV directly to DIVX.

My conclusion, I will use the DivXPro 6 Converter to convert my WMV files and stick to use TMPGEnc to convert my MOV file to MPG.

But now I have a DVD player with DIVX ability, I want to convert the videos to AVI. Unfortunately, I have tried many ways but the AVIs' quality I got was not acceptable. So I drop that idea, perhaps until I got the right and the best way to convert MOV to AVI.

Instead, I found a way to convert MOV to MPG with excellent quality and 35% of original MOV file. The quality is very far better than the first method.

Now I use TMPGenc 3.0 Xpress.

This is the configuration of TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress to get that excellent MPG quality. Click to view the actual image.

To get that setting:1. At set Output window, I select "Standard Template" - "MPEG Output"This is a general MPEG standard which do not follow VCD or DVD standards. Some DVD or VCD may not be able to play this format. Off course, my Samsung HD850 can play it!